Abstract
This study considered the utility of gender schema theory in examining girls' website design preferences. It built on a previous study which identified eight website evaluation criteria related to biological sex: collaboration, social connectivity, flexibility, motility, contextuality, personal identification, inclusion, and graphic/multimedia concentration. Eleven fourteen-, fifteen-, and sixteen-year-old girls participated in the study. The participants completed the short form of the Children's Sex-Role Inventory (CSRI). Following 50-minute Web searching sessions, they were divided into a feminine-high group and a masculine-high group based on their CSRI scores. Each group then participated in interviews concerning their website evaluation and design preferences. Data analysis identified relationships between gender schema and five of the proposed criteria: social connectivity, flexibility, motility, inclusion, and graphic/multimedia concentration. More generally, members of the feminine-high group favored evaluation criteria relating to graphic and multimedia design, whereas members of the masculine-high group favored evaluation criteria relating to subject content. These results indicate that gender schema theory can indeed serve as a framework for making website design more appealing to female adolescent users.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agosto, D. E.: (in press), 'Using Gender Schema Theory to Examine Gender Equity in Computing: A Preliminary Study', Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering.
Agosto, D. E.: 2002, 'Bounded Rationality and Satis cing in Young People 's Web-based Decision Making', Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53 (1), 16-27.
Agosto, D. E.: 2001, 'Propelling Girls into the Cyber Age: Gender Considerations in the Evaluation of Web-Based Information', School Library Media Research.
Bem, S. L.: 1987, 'Probing the Promise of Androgyny', in M. R. Walsh (ed.), The Psychology of Women: Ongoing Debates, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 206225.
Bem, S. L.: 1974, 'The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny', Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 42 (2), 155-162.
Bem, S. L.: 1981, Bem Sex-Role Inventory: Professional Manual, Consulting Psychologists, Palto Alto, CA.
Boldizar, J. P.: 1991, 'Assessing Sex Typing and Androgyny in Children: The Children 's Sex-Role Inventory', Developmental Psychology 27 (3), 505-515.
Brunner, C., Bennett, D. & Honey, M.: 1998, 'Girl Games and Technological Desire', in J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 46-71.
Burdick, T. A.: 1996, 'Success and Diversity in Information Seeking: Gender and the Information Search Styles Model', School Library Media Quarterly 25 (1), 19-27.
Cassell, J. & Jenkins, H.: 1998, 'Chess for Girls?Feminism and Computer Games', in J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2-45.
Comber, C., Colley, A., Hargreaves, D. & Dorn, L.: 1997, 'The Effects of Age, Gender and Computer Experience upon Computer Attitudes', Educational Research 39 (2), 123-133.
Dorman, S. M.: 1998, 'Technology and the Gender Gap', The Journal of School Health 68 (12), 165-166.
Fidel, R., Davies, R. K., Douglass, M. H., Holder, J. K., Hopkins, C. J., Kushner, E. J., Miyagishima, B. K. & Toney, C. D.: 1999, 'A Visit to the Information Mall: Web SearchingBehavior of High School Students', Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50 (1), 24-37.
Giaquinta, J. B., Bauer, J. A. & Levin, J. E.: 1993, Beyond Technology 's Promise: An Examination of Children 's Educational Computing at Home, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Gorriz, C. & Medina, C.: 2000, 'Engaging Girls with Computers through Software Games', Communications of the ACM 43 (1), 42-49.
Harding, S. G.: 1991, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women 's Lives, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Honey, M., Moeller, B., Brunner, C., Bennett, D., Clements, P. & Hawkins, J.: 1991, 'Girls and Design: Exploring the Question of Technological Imagination: Center for Technology in Education Technical Report No. 17, 1-12.
Kafai, Y. B.: 1996, 'Gender Differences in Children 's Constructions of Video Games', in P. Greenfield & R. Cocking (eds.), Interacting with Video, Ablex, Norwood, NJ.
Kafai, Y. B.: 1998, 'Video Game Designs by Girls and Boys: Variability and Consistency of Gender Differences', in J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 90-114.
Kafai, Y. B. & Bates, M. J.: 1997, 'Internet Web-Searching Instruction in the Elementary Classroom: Building a Foundation for Information Literacy', School Library Media Quarterly 25 (2), 103-111.
Larsen, R. & Seidman, E.: 1986, 'Gender Schema Theory and Sex-Role Inventories: Some Conceptual and Psychometric Considerations', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50, 205-211.
Martin, S.: 1998, 'Internet Use in the Classroom: The Impact of Gender', Social Science Computer Review 16 (4), 411-418.
Mayberry, M.: 1999, 'Reproductive and Resistant Pedagogies: The Comparative Roles of Collaborative Learning and Feminist Pedagogy in Science Education', in M. Mayberry & E. Rose (eds.), Meeting the Challenge: Innovative Feminist Pedagogies in Action, Routledge, New York, 443-449.
Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A. M.: 1994, Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (2nd ed.), Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Miller, L., Chaika, M. & Groppe, L.: 1996, 'Girls 'Preferences in Software Design: Insights from a Focus Group', Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century 4(2), 27-36.
Mumtaz, S.: 2001, 'Children 's Enjoyment and Perception of Computer Use in the Home and the School', Computers and Education 36 (4), 347-362.
Neisser, U.: 1976, Cognition and Reality: Principles and Implications of Cognitive Psychology, Freeman, San Francisco.
Oxford English Dictionary: 2000, 'Marginalize', Oxford University Press, <http://dictionary. oed.com/>.
Schofield, J. W.: 1995, Computers and Classroom Culture, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Seidman, I. E.: 1991, Interviewing as Qualitative Research, Columbia Teachers College, New York.
Seymour, E. & Hewitt, N. M.: 1997, Talking about Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences, Westview, Boulder, CO.
Stewart, D. W. & Shamdasani, P. N.: 1990, Focus Groups: Theory and Practice, Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
Subrahmanyam, K. & Greenfield, P. M.: 1998, 'Computer Games for Girls: What Makes Them Play '?, in J. Cassell & H. Jenkins (eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 46-71.
Taylor, S. E. & Crocker, J.: 1981, 'Schematic Bases of Social Information Processing', in T. Higgins, et al. (eds.), The Ontario Symposium on Personality and Social Psychology, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1981, 89-134.
Turkle, S.: 1988, 'Computational Reticence: Why Women Fear the Intimate Machine', in C. Kramarae (ed.), Technology and Women 's Voices: Keeping in Touch, Routledge, New York, 1988, 41-61.
Twenge, J. M.: 1997, 'Changes in Masculine and Feminine Traits over Time: A Meta-Analysis', Sex Roles 36 (5/6), 305-325.
Walford, G.: 1981, 'Do Chemistry Textbooks Present a Sex-Biased Image?', Education in Chemistry 18 (1), 1.
Wester, F.: 1996, 'The Analysis of Qualitative Interviews', in I. Maso & F. Wester (eds.), The Deliberate Dialogue, VUB University Press, Brussels, 1996, 63-86.
Wolcott, M. S.: 1998, Information Seeking and the World Wide Web: A Qualitative Study of Seventh Grade Students 'Search Behavior during an Inquiry Activity. Ph. D. dissertation, University of San Francisco.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Agosto, D.E. Design vs. Content: A Study of Adolescent Girls' Website Design Preferences. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 14, 245–260 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-004-0776-y
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-004-0776-y